Things to do to Help Yourself

Use
mosquito repellent on exposed skin. The Center
for Disease Control recommends products with
DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Read and follow label directions with all repellents.

Wear
light-colored clothing.

Any
standing water in any item in your yard can
be attractive to adult mosquitoes looking to
lay eggs. Empty, cover, stack, store, or remove
these items. Do a routine check after rains
or lawn watering in items such as wheelbarrows,
boat tarps, flower pots and saucers, garbage
cans, recycling containers, buckets, rain gutters,
and tires.

Change
the water regularly in birdbaths, pet dishes,
and children’s pools.

Maintain
chlorination and filtration in swimming pools.

Ornamental
bromeliads should be flushed out twice each
week or treated monthly with larvicides (Bti,
methoprene or permethrin sprays).

Ornamental
ponds can be stocked with mosquito-eating fish.

Rain
barrels should be screened or covered.

Monitor
discharge from air conditioning and heat pump
units.

Mosquito
Surveillance:

Field technicians inspect areas known to breed mosquitoes
throughout the year. They sample standing water, looking
for larvae and pupae. They investigate citizen requests,
inspecting yards and surrounding neighborhoods for
mosquito breeding.

Because mosquitoes aren’t always
present when the technicians are investigating, they
occasionally ask citizens to provide specimens. By
providing the mosquitoes that are bothering them, citizens
can expedite the proper treatment based on the species
provided.

Technicians look for adult mosquitoes by
setting traps and by doing “landing rates counts” –
counting the number of mosquitoes that land in on them
in one minute. Forty traps are set each week throughout
the year to monitor adult mosquito populations. The
species of mosquito and the number provide valuable
information for making treatment decisions.